Page 36 of Claimed By the Wraiths

“That sounds about right.” Her voice softened, not much, only the edges. “Bring her home, Serak.”

The comms clicked off. The Ghost hummed.

Tal had fallen asleep in the copilot’s seat, chin on his chest, hands still gripping the armrests. His body had given up on consciousness even if his fingers hadn’t gotten the message.

I should have slept. I couldn’t.

The proto-bond was a constant presence now, more than direction and emotion, something physical, a warmth in my chest that shifted when Jessa’s emotional state did.

She was calm now. The fury had burned off, leaving a steady warmth in my chest.

I held onto the fact that she was awake and steady and kept flying.

The nav display showed two hours.

I looked at it. Looked again. Two hours.

The last number I remembered was six. The check-in with Maris, the display reading six, and then I was looking at two and the space between was gone.

Four hours. I’d lost four hours.

Not asleep. Not unconscious. Just missing.

I didn’t feel the hours leave; I looked down and they were gone.

My hands were on the controls. I didn’t remember putting them there.

I looked at my forearms. The dark wasn’t uniform anymore. Deeper around my wrists, climbing past my elbows.

The shadow-meld residue from Meridian, still in my system, reacting to the sustained connection I was holding across deep void. The proto-bond and the shadow-meld used the same biology, and running both at once was...

Was.

I lost the thought. I’d been thinking about the biology and then I wasn’t.

Tal stirred. Opened his eyes. Looked at me, bleary, a man who’d fallen asleep in a situation he wished were a dream.

“How long was I out?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I lost track.”

He sat up straighter. Looked at my arms. At the skin on my neck and jaw that I felt shifting but couldn’t see.

“Your skin,” he said. “It’s worse.”

“I’m aware.”

“Is that going to be a problem?”

“Not for you.”

Tal studied me for a long moment.

Two hours left on the display. The proto-bond pulled. Steady and warm and directional.